Out of the mouth of babes…Gadgeteer Style

The Gadgeteer Kid is now a 6’3” teenager. Being raised in the Gadgeteer lifestyle he definitely has an opinion about most technologies. Well, in this case the Fam was watching a show and the latest Verizon commercial came on where they try to convince the world 5gb is enough data for most people. We are grandfathered on T-Mobile’s truly Unlimited Plan and I have not checked our usage in a very long time. After watching that commercial curiosity got the best of me and I checked our account. I jaw-droppingly discovered the Kid had used 40gb and we were only half way thru the billing cycle…I know crazy. I turned to him and asked him WTH?!? He informed me it shouldn’t matter cause our service was unlimited and more importantly T-Mobile was better, faster, and more reliable than the XFinity/Comcast service to our house. The G.K. is without a doubt a straight-shooter and he calls it like he sees it. Anyhow, that short conversation struck a chord with me, enough to tell you all about it. The take home messages are: One, that most folks would prefer to not worry about data limits…period. Secondly just how good T-Mobile service has become and how very well it works for us. And lastly yes, I made him connect his smartphone to our WiFi and agree to stay on it while in the house.

I bet you had to be veeeeery polite and suggest things when asking him do anything (karate kid looks like he can totally take you).
That said, unlimited plans are becoming a rarity. Here in Uganda, our capped plans are costly and top out at about 1gb a month for $10 at 11mbps. We have a government that is beginning to take a destructive interest in what we do on social media and all our isps are greedy capitalists.
How much do you pay for that connection? To get 512kbps (yes, they still make that) it will cost about $300 a month.

In my experience, I get WAY faster speeds through Comcast than either of my phones. One is on AT&T, and the other Straight Talk through Verizon. Verizon caps MVNO at 5mbs and on AT&T, I get around 14mbs have never seen more than 53mbs. Comcast, I can get 240mbs.

We live pretty far out in the sticks, reliability and the occasional slowdowns are really the issues with Comcast. Our smartphones typically get 75mb/s at our house and 100+ in downtown Seattle from Tmo.

I’m lucky to be grandfathered in to truly unlimited T-Mo for $90/mnth. It’s still quite expensive but luckily I make it up with my Internet access.

Here in the Big Apple, my apartment buys Time Warner (now Spectrum) on an exclusive contract basis. This means we have no competitors allowed to cable in the building. However, we get great savings. My 300MBs unlimited help yourself Internet is $45/mnth (yes $45).